PCOO points to previous officials in Yolanda fund liquidation delay

MANILA, Philippines—The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) has blamed its failure to liquidate funds disbursed as aid to employees who suffered losses as a result of Super Typhoon “Yolanda” and a 7.2 magnitude quake in 2013 on the failure of the previous PCOO administration to turn over records during the transition from old to new officials.

The PCOO issued the statement after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the government’s premier communications arm for failure to liquidate, or account for, funds used as aid for 20 employees who suffered losses as a result of calamities.

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In its 2018 audit report, COA said the Office of the President (OP) donated P1.37 million to the PCSO in April 2015 which was released in two tranches.

The COA said although the full amount was paid to beneficiaries in August 2015 yet, there was “poor monitoring” of the donations, which led to one employee not getting any aid for three years.

The COA also said only the first tranche was released to the PCOO because the conditions set for the release of the second tranche have not been met.

In a statement on Friday (June 28), the PCOO said only its efforts made the PCOO’s current administration aware of the shortcomings of the previous administration in liquidating the first tranche of funds released to PCOO.

The PCOO said it had already submitted in the first quarter of 2019 the liquidation reports on the first tranche of the funds.

It added that the case cited by the COA of one employee who did not receive any aid turned out to be that of a married couple’s that share one household.

The PCOO, the office’s statement said, “cannot distribute to both spouses who share one household as this would be tantamount to double compensation.”

The PCOO also reported that it had already received the second tranche of the Yolanda funds from the OP during the second quarter of 2019 after submitting the liquidation report for the first tranche. (Editor:Tony Bergonia)

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